May Traditions
One of the features of The Success Choice Planner is monthly traditions ideas. Why would we put this in a planner? A goal at the Success Choice is to inspire you to choose joy in your journey.
One of the ways to choose joy is to improve and strengthen your relationships. I believe traditions are a great way to link and unify relationships. Sometimes we can use some help creating traditions. I had a customer tell me that she didn’t grow up with a lot of traditions in her family, and she really appreciated the ideas in the planner that she could use in her own family.
Whether or not you grew up with positive traditions or not, it is fun to have new ideas that strengthen relationships.
The tradition ideas are just suggestions. You may choose to implement some, all, or none of the ideas.
One tradition suggestion in The Success Choice Planner is to learn more about your parents or other relatives. Some ideas to do this are:
- Review old pictures with your parents or other relatives and write descriptions of photos.
- Capture their memories (written, audio, or video).
- Plan a family trip to visit places of significance to your relatives.
- Record them telling stories about the important events in their life.
My parents captured the stories of their parents and relatives, and they passed on this tradition.
When my dad was 90 years old, since he was still healthy and able to get around well, we decided to make a family trip with my parents to southern Utah where he grew up.
My dad grew up on a ranch, and loved horses and the desert. The painting in the video is one he painted when he was 79 years old, and was just one of many he painted showcasing his love of Southern Utah.
We visited some of my dad’s old stomping grounds. We visited homes he grew up in and property his family had owned. We recorded him telling stories of his youth.
When my dad was young, there were several western movies filmed near his home. My grandpa, nicknamed “Cowhide” because of a cowhide belt he wore, was hired as the resident “Cowboy” to advise on some of the films. My grandpa was also in charge of hiring locals as extras in the movies. My dad had the opportunity to be an extra in several movies. We visited an old movie set and he told us stories.
He was an extra in the film “Drums Along the Mohawk.” While filming, three cowboys were to ride out galloping at full speed, and on the sound of a rifle shot, the man in the blue shirt was supposed to fall off his horse. Out they went, and on the sound of the shot, all three fell off. In checking, they all had some blue in their shirts. They wanted to earn the $5.00 extra for falling off. Extras were paid $3.00 a day for being there, and more money was earned by riding horses, driving wagons, speaking, etc., and apparently $5.00 for falling off a horse.
We spent several days visiting memorable sites. While in the area, my dad asked if we could visit the Pipe Spring National Monument museum to see if they still had a gun he had donated. Then he told us the story of when he was 14 and came across an abandoned cabin in the desert. While exploring the cabin he found an old rifle in the loft.
When he got back home, he showed the rifle to his scout leader. His leader said it was a riffle from the civil war and encouraged my dad to donate it to a museum, which he did. We visited the museum, and the gun was there on display. The park ranger was excited to learn that my dad was there and called a local reporter to come interview him.
This was a story that I didn’t know about my dad before this trip.
It’s fascinating to hear the stories of our loved ones, and taking the time to capture the stories of someone you care about might be a tradition you’d like to start.